Poor Neglected Blog

It's become so much easier to just avoid the poor page than to look at it and think about all the things I want to say that I just can't put to paper (so to speak).

I've been busy doing absolutely nothing! Nothing looks like this:

Click here for credits

IF I were smart, I'd have remembered to make a copy of the page together so you could picture it as it were side by side. Oh well. :) THAT has been my "nothing" summer. It's a little misleading though... there was A LOT more Disney than that batch of photos shows. :)

1. Colby eating ribs at TGI Fridays for Sarah's birthday
2. Sarah, Shyleen & Colby at Fridays
3. Liam eating a s'more at the beach
4. Matthew with Miss Maggie at the beach
5. Yippy Skippies ride again (Matthew, Allen, Jaana, Blaine, me)
6. Liam at the beach
7. Avon Walk closing with Malia
8. Avon Walk dinner at Wellness Village
9. Catalina Island
10. 75% of the Shelley family
11. Trena singing fireside
12. Maggie is very cold
13. Someday I'll get into Club 33. For now, I dream.
14. Amy & Byron
15. Fireworks over Disneyland
16. The cousins at Amy's wedding
17. Miss Delilah making a silly face
18. Pretty momma and baby girl
19. Silly girl!
20. Maggie with her daddy on her first 4th of July
21. Another pretty momma and baby girl
22. Event Eve for Avon Walk
23. Old Friends
24. Chad's birthday
25/26. Disneyland with the girls

NOW I must go to bed. I've been picking at this layout for a week and finally finished it, so I needed to post it while I was thinking of it. :)

All for you Treen, happy? ;)

If you read my notes on FacebooIf you read my notes on Facebook, this is old. I'm reposting for those that don't. (originally posted 1/29/09)

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things about yourself. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I love to read. Up until last week I was rotating through reading 3 books at once.

2. I've always been a geek, but I'm just coming into my own and being happy with it in the last few years.

3. I took almost 9 years to get my degree. I only took 1 semester off (so 9 1/2), but with working full time and balancing time with family/friends/church, I never took more than 3 classes a semester. Some days I think this makes me a loser, but I don't care on days like today... I'm proud of myself and not giving up.

4. I realized during my last semester as a junior (3 for each level) that I should have majored in art history (or art), but it was a bit late to change. I may end up going back some day.

5. I'm a Twitter junkie. I'm on there all the time and have made several new geeky friends there. :) (Follow Warplayer & Okelay... they're great!)

6. I'm such a self-assured geek (& Twinkie- Twitter junkie) that I also follow several of my favorite actors from Star Trek: TNG, visit their websites/blogs and hope to attend my first Comicon this year (PAX would be better, but highly unlikely).

7. I still scrapbook, somewhat. I've been burned out the last year or so and hope to return to it VERY soon! :)

8. My favorite colors are black, red & blue, yet all my electronics are metallic sour apple green.

9. I <3 Tinkerbell, but my favorite Disney movies are Alice, Robin Hood & Dumbo.

10. I love all things Alice. My favorite PC game is American McGee’s Alice. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tim Burton’s adaptation to the big screen. (It will probably become my all time favorite as it’ll have all my “perfect” movie elements as well as my favorite storyline.

11. “Perfect movie” in Pixie terms means it’s directed by Tim Burton, scored by Danny Elfman and stars Johnny Depp.

12. JD was my first (and only constant) celebrity crush… I think I was 6 when Jump Street started. :)

13. Current celebrity faves include: Edward Norton, Heath Ledger, Angelina Jolie, Isla Fischer & Adrien Brody.

14. I adopted the screen name PixieMegh to cover my love of all fairies (not just Tink). It has morphed itself into my nickname, Pixie, from all my ‘net friends.

15. I’d actually legally change my name to Pixie if I didn’t like my given name so much, it feels that much a part of who I am.

16. I’ve been married to the love of my life (gag me, right?), Matthew, for just over 7 years now. I think we’re just now getting used to living together.

17. My mom often told me while dating a certain HS sweetheart that I really wanted to marry someone that told me “no” once in awhile. She was right, and I did. What she failed to mention was how much I’d HATE hearing that stupid little word. ;) (“What DO you MEAN I can’t have my way all the time?”)

18. One of my best friends is an “ex-boyfriend.” He’s like family and can’t wait until I have kids to send off and pester him for me.

19. Another of my other best friends has been in my life since the first day of 2nd grade. I’d just moved there, and knew no one. She came up to me at recess and asked me to come and play. We recently celebrated her birthday by seeing Oliver & Co. at the El Capitan. It was the 20th anniversary of the movie, as well as our friendship.

20. I’m trying to be less snobby about my musical listening choices. It’s hard, but I’m really enjoying branching out. I still say that if it involves screaming, I’ll probably like it.

21. My dream job would be creating and selling things online. Etsy will work at first, but I’d eventually want my own store.

22. I have a Halloween costume that I’ve wanted to do for 5 years now; I finally may have the time to do it this year.

23. I LOVE Postsecret.com. I’ve only mailed in one secret, but often make them and rip them up when I’m done, it’s therapeutic.

24. I hope to re-teach myself how to play the flute this year.

25. I hate Valentines Day so Matthew usually gets me flowers the week before or after.

Only?

If you read my notes on Facebook, this is old. I'm reposting for those that don't. (originally posted 2/3/09)

Copy and change the answers to suit you (using only one word) and pass it on. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your significant other? Matty
3. Your hair? disaster
4. Your favorite thing? interwebs
5. Your dream last night? Nada
6. Your favorite drink? Pepper
7. Your dream/goal? Babies!
8. What room you are in? Office
9. Your hobby? LOTS!
10. Your fear? Armageddon
11. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Mommified
12. Where were you last night? Home
13. Muffins? Nummers!
14. Wish list item? PhotoShop
15. Where you grew up? D-town
16. Last thing you did? read
17. What are you wearing? Maddens
18. Your TV? Analog >:
19. Your pets? nonexistant
20. Friends? Loved :)
21. Your life? Transitioning
22. Your mood? Meh
23. Missing some one? yes
24. Car? Green
25. Something you're not wearing? socks
26. Your favorite store? Many
28. When is the last time you laughed? Minutes
29. Last time you cried? yesterday
30. Who will resend this? dunno

Hi-dee ho!

I know, I've been slacking off. I don't really have any true excuses so I'll spare you. Wanna see what I've been up to? :) Of course you do!

We have a friend who recently obtained his pyrotechnics licence. He had several friends from church come down to assist him in his first show on the 4th. Jeremy was totally in charge of the whole set-up and take down as well as all that went in the middle of that. Here is Matthew and his buddy, Rocky, taking a quick break while Sarah, Rocky's wife, and I took their picture. The boys had fun, but it was a LOT of work!


That whole set up behind them is their "camp". Here is a fun photo and some footage of the show. It's sideways because I'm terrible about turning the video. I'll fix it someday... but for show here it is!

My cousin's little baby girl, Delilah, was blessed that Sunday. I wasn't able to make it to the blessing in LA (I'm the new Primary chorister and it was hard to find a sub so quickly) but had lots of fun at the open house afterwards.

Kristal, my cousin, has given up on scrapbooking due to time constraints & motivation, but she asked me to customize her prints for the blessing for her instead, so I have the whole set anyway! ;) Here is our grandma (my maternal, her paternal) my aunt, Kristal and Delilah taking a 4 generation picture. I'll post some of my creations with the photos another time.


And the Yippy Skippies at Disneyland this last week. The 5 of us on the right have been going every Wednesday night for the last 6 weeks or so. Seth even made a shirt to commemorate our fun little group. Those are my beloved new Chucks on my feet there too. :D The 5 of us go, invite our other passholder friends, and just have a blast being stupid silly together.

(L to R: Dawn, Jaana, Blaine, M&M, Seth, Allen & Cindy)

That's the quick version of what's been going on. I hope to post again soon!

Post-dated

So you know... I started this review of the new ride at Disney's California Adventure a week ago, but my internet went down and then I had issues with updating. It's finally done and I left it dated of when I had originally intended to post it. Click the link and catch up! :D

Catch Up

It's been crazy! Here's some photos to catch you all up on what I've been up to.

First up, my little troop has grown! I don't think I've posted pictures of my newest turtle. Easter also brought me an iguana. So meet: Jonas, Bree, Rhiannon, Emma, Chloe and Iggy!

This spring brought babies for 2 wonderful people in my life. I'd decided that I wanted to give them something truly from the heart so I found fabulous fabric (way more expensive than I'd thought, oops!) and had my dear friend, Stephanie, sew them up for me. Didn't she do a beautiful job?

I got my hair cut and dyed the weekend before Easter. Ain't it cute? It's faded a lot since then to a more brownish, but I was so sick of the really grown out bleached blonde nastiness. :) Much happier now.

Got bored one day... here's my school. This is the view from the top of one of the parking structures. That building in the front is the performing arts building/theater. The windowed one on the far right (top of the skyline) is where I've taken all my math and science classes. The visual art building is behind those trees on the left.

More gift fun! I made these onsies for Michelle (my friend from school who has kept me sane on this LONG journey). Her blanket & burp cloths are the cherry pattern seen above (they also went into the bag). Sweet and Rockababy credits can be seen in each link.


I had WAY too much fun wrapping that!

Trena started a bunko group. I forgot to take pictures before anyone left, so I took this one instead. I had a lot of fun!!

Went to Disneyland on 5/2 with T&A and the Richins'. We had a lot of fun! Matthew got on the carrosel with Liam. Cute shot huh?



Dear friends of ours bought a Coldstone about a half hour away from our place. He was in our wedding line and Matthew's best friend growing up. I'm looking forward to many nights down that way this summer!

My mother's day gift to my mom. :)

We went to Minnie's Moonlight Madness last week with our friends Kim and Matt. We had lots of fun and came in 121st place out of around 400. Not bad for 2 newbies (the Matts).

And I got these great shots of Main Street being essentially empty. The first is with my back to the hub and castle. That's the train station and flag pole at the end. The second is at the other end with the pole behind me looking at the castle. So cool!


Saturday of Memorial Day weekend always has my behind at the fair grounds for the Highland Games. We spend most our time at the athletic fields watching Allen compete, but we also eat meat pies and go shopping. Here's Allen preparing for his first caber throw.

And his second throw... messed up by some OLD crazy lady (no really... she doesn't look so bad in the photo but you had to actually SEE her to understand) who just randomly stopped right in front of me. Thanks!

The Highland Midgets. I've got video of them too. I'll post that later. ;) They were pretty funny.

And my latest acquisition. ;) I love it.

Sunday was Liam's birthday. Matthew is officially the favorite uncle for a bit as he picked this out for him:


That brings you up to date on me. It's been crazy busy. There was a lot left out too. Whew!! Stay tuned for fun video clips in my next post. :D

Whew!

What a weekend we had! I had a lot of fun though. From Across the Universe, to Zoot Suits (close enough anyway) it was a fun weekend. I'm really kicking myself for not taking more pictures but we'll see how we do.

Starting with Thursday. It was V-day. I'm not a huge fan so Matthew knows better than getting me stuff because he feels like he has to. He got me flowers just because a few weeks ago so that actually made me happier than flowers that day would have. (One of the guys at work did ask why I didn't have anything on my desk that day though, lol)

We went to dinner at Ruby's (where they gave me a carnation and for some strange reason it made me silly giddy) then to Target for a little walk around. We bought Across the Universe on DVD and brought it home.

I had wanted to catch this film while it was in the theaters, but it just didn't work out. I really enjoyed it!! It's like watching a Baz Luhrmann production of the Beatles. Granted, Baz had nothing to do with it, but you get the idea. If nothing else, you know the music will be great. Did I mention the cameo by Bono? He sings I Am the Walrus. Koo koo ka choo folks. ;)

Friday was our friend Matt's bachelor party. They did the usual... go to a "family" restaurant where the waitresses wear semi-skimpy uniforms and then a goofy round of mini golf. They all dress up in argyle and plaid (wearing tams and flat caps too) and take goofy pictures the whole time. I don't have any of them right now but I'll post some when I get 'em. You can always check my first video on YouTube... there are a few of them buried in that slide show. (1:06, 1:36, & 2:21)

I went with Trena to watch Katie's kids while she and Skip went out. We had fun. Belen takes less and less time to adjust to me everytime I see her. She and Matthew bonded the last time we went to Disneyland (he took her all though the fun stuff at Toon Town). She lit up and liked me better when we reminded her about how much fun she had with him last time we saw her. He's so much better with little kids than I am.

Saturday I went to Scrapbook expo with Trena, Malia and Jenny. I found my friend Cindy while we were there to. I ended up buying a few things. I only took a few pictures though because most of the booths didn't allow them (the kits were gorgeous though!!)

The SEI truck (I couldn't resist!)

Jenny's son, Gavin. He was as good as gold the whole time!

Mia, me, Trena, Gav & Jenny just before going home

All my loot! I had fun at Rusty Pickle!!

That night we dropped by Matt & Kim's new apartment. They get married on Leap Day so she was working on her dress at her parents' house. Matt had us over to check out their new diggs. Lemme just tell you, I'm having Kim come in and help me with decorating our place! She did an awesome job and had only been moved in for a week!

Sunday brought church. I gave a lesson in Relief Society about the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson with lots of fantastic comments from the women. I love my calling and my ward!!

Monday brought chores and the "dreaded" shopping trip. Chores first: helping Trena and Aaron build furniture. LOL It wasn't really OUR chores, but the sooner they got done the sooner we all could go shopping. We took a run down the the Orange Circle (old town Orange has all kinds of cool antique shops and the like) to try out Sir Wicket's first. Turns out it was our only stop! Both the guys found suits that worked perfectly for Matt's wedding, yay!

Then we walked a block down to visit the Orange Antique Mall (where Matthew and I had purchased my wedding rings). After walking around for a bit (Rambling Rose was closed... they're the estate jewelry place where my rings came from) and admiring all the retro Pyrex dishes (I know where to go for Trena's birthday now) we were on our way out. I stopped at a little jewelry rack and found some awesome pearls for my dress and a really cute magnet while I was waiting in line that I just HAD to have:

Flashback: That's what I call Winter!

It rained all day on Nov. 30th. That was a Friday. I took those pictures on my lunch on my way to McD's. The others were taken the next day when the sun finally decided to show his face. I had just spent the first all-nighter of finals finishing up a portfolio for my Comparative Literature class (I have yet to know how I did in the class). It was my hardest class this semester because it was on Saturday mornings and by that point in the week I didn't have time to do any of the reading. I did enjoy the teacher and my classmates though. I'm hoping I did well because I got A's in my other 2 classes. So far I'm good... one more to go!!

Flashback: Black Friday

I normally hate Black Friday but this year it was fun. The day before, Trena had gone through all the ads and decided she'd wanted this flat screen TV from either Wal*Mart or one from Target. She INSISTED that she was going to get up and get it at the crack of dawn. (She didn't.)

We all met up at my in-laws to go shopping together (Matthew's sibbies and cousin Brad). Sarah brought Allie, who was all dressed up:



Those are her Princess shoes. She got a whole bunch of them from Matthew's mother last Christmas. Her other grandmother gave her the crown and a matching wand too... and now she has the dress to match! She wore that dress shopping with us and got compliments all day!!

First stop was at Nordstrom Rack. I struck out, but had fun shopping. We then went to DSW. I LOVE that store!! I got the cutest little flats. They're black with pink flowers and a pink ribbon. Similar to this one:


Aren't they cute? I get compliments on them every time I wear them. I also bought my first pair of Steve Maddens. I was OH so excited to get them. I cannot find a picture though. They're relatively plain black pumps, but they've got the name on them! ;) I've been wearing them at least twice a week now and LOVE them. I also almost bought a hot pair of Chinese Laundry heels, but Trena wisely talked me out of them. (I got the Maddens instead) They were like 5" heels and total F-me shoes but I wouldn't have been able to wear them for long periods of time.

I find it amazing that I'm even talking about shoes anyway. Show this blog to the me of 5 years ago and I wouldn't have believed it!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the craziest little girl ever. She got Uncle Keith to catch her a lizard... and she played with it while wearing her princess dress. Enjoy the irony!!

Flashback: Allie's Birthday (celebrated on Turkey Day)

We celebrated Allie's birthday after Thanksgiving dinner. Since the family was in town and they'd all pretty much be leaving on Sunday, Sarah thought it'd be more fun/easier that way.

She was so cute! She opened all of her cards first (how many 4 year olds know to do that?). Her dad, Matt, insisted it must a genetic girl thing because no dude ever does that. She got lots of fun things but the immediate favorite was her Aurora dress. She had Sarah put it right on over her clothes and then she turned around and started climbing in the bushes with her brother. She's the ultimate tomboy! :)



What a cutie!

More to come... ;)

Flashback: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was super yummy! Matthew's grandparents and aunt/uncles came in for a visit. This also included his cousin Brad who we never get to see so it was fun to hang out with him for the weekend.

The food was YUMMY and we had a lot of fun just talking and joking around.

Flashback: November 16, Luau!

We had a luau for our outgoing bishop at church. We had a lot of fun but the best part was watching all the kids go nuts to the music. We had a Polynesian dance troupe come in and put on a show.

Here is my friend Stephanie's little boy too. He would clap along with everyone after each little "set". He could never figure out why I kept laughing though.